At first it started as an idea and a business project for some tech mogul, who wanted to lay claim on one thing that no one claimed before - the sky, basing his concept on the threat of global warming. ‘Take people away from the earth’, he reasoned, ‘and the earth will recuperate’. ‘Project name_1’ was located in the lower parts of stratosphere, the decision made by virtue of dynamic stability of this atmospheric layer and the desire to utilise as much of solar power as possible. There was a long period of trial and error, of course, in search of the best lightweight materials to be used in construction - since previous examples of stratosphere-bound bodies were limited to aircrafts, and here the dream was to get a whole city up in the air. By the time ‘Project name_1’ was finished, the whole world was following this daring project, and its success triggered the start of several similar projects, this time founded by Global Aeronautics and Space Committee (GASC), an organisation that united such big players as NASA and RosCosmos in order to develop ‘Project name_1’ to a much larger scale. Final goal - to transfer 8 billions of people from the surface to stratosphere, where, some 20 km above ground they will live in new flying cities. The earth was to be conserved, old cities stripped from everything except historic legacy, and production, such as mining and agriculture, was to be automated completely and controlled from air. Everything else was left for nature to grow and recuperate in hopes of if not reversing completely then at least stopping the global warming. Stratosphere Cities, or Migrating Towers, as they were sometimes called, now roamed the lower parts of stratosphere, dealing with such problems as regulation of population, employment and maintenance of such a totality.

THE OVERSEER

The most recent addition to the fleet of Migrating Towers is where I live and hold a position of an overseer. However, in our age of immaterial labor every position can be described as an overseer. My job is to control and regulate the living units which is no small feat: people were used to having class division and still clinged to the old ideas of hierarchy. They believed that there were ‘better’ apartment units, which were used by those who held a higher position, and that could sometimes lead to protests. My job was to prevent that by explaining that in the Tower there is no class, all living units are standardised, and work hierarchy follows (or tries to) the rules of meritocracy. Everything in inner workings of Stratosphere City needs to be handled with knowledge because lives of all inhabitants depend on their competence. There were other things to oversee, of course. There were certain rules for inhabitants that they had to follow: no more than two children per family to control the population level, for example. It cannot be denied that some of those regulations were discriminatory in one way or another, but the rules were a matter of survival. There was also hope for further technological progress that will allow to abolish some, if not all, of those rules.

THE MODE OF LIFE

The interiors of the City reflect the purpose of the area and often as a communication medium. The Migrating Tower is comprised of two main features: central part, the ‘heart’ in which all the technical and utility features are kept, and living units. The space between living quarters and the maintenance/production part is reserved for different leisure activities, the highest level that has access to most of the sunlight serves as a winter garden with fruit trees and vegetable patches for people to enjoy. The living unit is a prefabricated cell that can house about four to six families: the interiors of a cell are easily changed to accommodate the needs. The main feature of the living units were, of course, windows. Aside from providing an astonishing view (that played no small role in promoting the concept of the City), the material they were made of served as a solar battery, providing the units with enough energy to be self-sufficient. Additionally, these units can be moved and added until they encircle the central part. The inhabitants do not stay in one place for long, unless their occupation requires it. It can be attributed to the feeling of ‘cabin fever’, since people are confined within the Tower. It is possible to make a pilgrimage to the surface, however, it is no longer as easy as simply walking out the door. It comes as no surprise, then, that most of the population tends to visit the garden levels of their Cities at least once a day, creating a steady circulation throughout the whole totality.